Which Laws To Repeal?
It really is quite extraordinary.
Our new, naïve, deputy prime minister finds himself in the second most powerful job in the nation after losing seats at the general election. But he doesn’t know which laws to repeal.
If that paragraph was from
We all know neither he nor Cameron will take the slightest notice of any suggestions. This invitation is school-room politics, said for effect. Worse, if he were serious it would reflect an appalling lack of preparation by both political parties before the election.
The present wave of sloppy thinking is truly breath-taking. We now have, out of the blue, a commitment which was not included in either manifesto to elect a House of Lords and to enforce fixed-term parliaments. They must be out of their collective minds. (I shall have more to say on those ideas in a day or so.)
Meanwhile, the cast-iron Tory manifesto commitment to repeal the Human Rights Act, for instance, has simply been abandoned to appease the Lib-Dims. But then the Lisbon Treaty told us all we needed to know about the value of Tory cast-iron guarantees.
Most of the truly important changes the Tories had promised have been ditched in the interests of compromise. The coalition manifesto – if that is what it is – is full of relative trivia, much tweaking of mere operational details. There is no big vision.
Expediency rules - again.
An earlier posting of mine argued that no law passed since 1999 was lawful after the botched reform of the House of Lords. That could be Clegg’s starting point for a repeal programme, and a short-cut to remove the 5000 new laws and over 3000 new criminal offences inflicted on this long-suffering country during the years of Nu-Labour.
But such dramatic action is unlikely. It would create too many daunting problems for our new and adolescent government. The elegant concept of enforcing the rule of law as an unarguable starting point is obviously too much for them.
So the invitation to make proposals becomes irresistible, especially knowing they will be ignored.
Inevitably we must start with repeal the European Communities Act 1972, which gets us out of the EU. Over 40,000 EU regulations will fall automatically as well. They depend for their legal status on Statutory Instruments passed under the same Act.
Even if Clegg and Cameron decline any such suggestion, at the very least they should impose a cost:benefit analysis of all EU legislation in future, and as quickly as possible over all past EU regulations. As I said in an earlier posting, they should warn
The Commission could not complain since they told me five years ago that the EU could not undertake such an exercise because “the criteria would be different in each country”. And that is precisely why it is in the
Back home, during its 13-year reign of terror, Nu-Labour passed over 500 new Acts of Parliament, six on immigration, eight on terrorism, 12 on education, 11 on health and social care, and 25 on criminal justice. Many of them were enacted simply to comply with new EU directives. Not one of them, nor the quangos they created, has improved our quality of life. Quite the reverse. All of them should go.
So, repeal all
Lobbies wishing to re-create abolished EU law must be obliged to make the case again in the context of the best interests of the British people. They must not be allowed to continue by default.
A huge bonus from the abolition of these busy-bodies would be the savings in public expenditure. It must run into billions.
In addition to those mentioned above, the following are a few of the more pernicious Acts of Parliament which need to be repealed in full or in part to restore British liberty. This is by no means an exhaustive list and, to be fair, at least one is on Clegg’s little list already:
Civil Contingencies Act 2005
Criminal Justice Act 2003
Extradition Acts 2003 and 2006
Health and Safety Act 1997
ID Cards Act 2006
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006
Police and Justice Act 2006
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
Terrorism Act 2005
Here are a few things this new government should do, some of which featured in another earlier posting :
Health: Restructure hospital managements so that doctors’ clinical judgements and patients needs come first. Doctors and nurses should decide. Managers should manage.
Public Services: Restore British ownership of essential public services and protect our vital national interests using Mrs Thatcher’s famous golden share principle. There can be no foreign majority ownership of essential British utilities.
Farming: Restore the right of British farmers to grow whatever they like.
Defence: Restore spending on defence to at least five per cent of total public spending to ensure the armed forces have the capabilities and resources to defend this country and assist where needed in peace-keeping duties around the globe.
Migration: Re-establish clear difference between economic migration and genuine pleas for asylum.
All visa applications to be made from abroad. No visa, no travel.
Limit work permits to essential workers only. No right to benefits. ‘Support yourself and your families or leave’.
Ban visas to all Imams who are unable to speak English, and those known to preach violence. Deport Imams who preach incitement to violence.
Prevent infiltration of extremist Islamic views into the government, police and armed services by positive vetting of applicants and routine monitoring afterwards.
But it should. And the sooner the better.
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